4 tips for people renting for the first time

The thought of moving from my parents home and renting an apartment always gave me anxiety. I was a afraid I will pick the wrong place, go to the hassle of moving and then see that the place wasn’t really what I was looking for. So yeah, instant anxiety. Hopefully, I had a couple of things that went through to make sure, or be at easy, that the apartment I’m letting will be the right one.

First and foremost, I wanted a place in my childhood neighbourhood, mainly because I had everything I needed right there. Restaurants, markets, a park, my usual gym. I’m one for changes, but do you know how hard it is to find good gym classes and nice places to eat out? My first tip is to research the area of the apartment before letting it or choosing an area that you love and like.

The second thing I really cared about was that the place is photo / video friendly as a lot of what I do revolves around that, you know, good light, clean white walls. Little things like that mattered to me and maybe if the apartment was nice but needed some work, aka a painting job, the landlord would do it before moving in or would let me do it. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, but make sure if you can do some changes to the space before moving in.

Check thoroughly the renting contract, the additional fees if they are any & the rent increase policy. Sites like homelet.co.uk/ have available a great range of specialist products to give you complete protection and peace of mind when it comes to letting. Transparency is much appreciated both ways.

Another thing, that I kinda checked but missed out, were the “white goods’ aka freezer, washing machine, oven & such. Everything looked new and shiny, but the washing machine has fixed washing cycles that I can’t change. I know it isn’t a big thing and something that I couldn’t have tested, but on the long term is a little bit annoying. So be sure to check if everything matches your standards.